Shea given one area

In the aftermath of the California Coastal Commission’s approval of a crucial permit for a hotly contested housing development, both supporters and opponents are still waiting to find out exactly what the recent votes add up to.

But both sides of the debate over the proposed Parkside Estates near the East Garden Grove-Wintersburg flood channel said the fight isn’t over by a long shot. And one side is considering its legal options.

“We’re going to get together with our lawyers, sit down and say, ‘Are we going to let that stand?’” said Flossie Horgan, executive director of the Bolsa Chica Land Trust, which wants much more of the land preserved.

The commission didn’t vote on the specifics of any housing development last week; it did, however, decide which land could be built on, knocking one possible wetland off the suggested map the commissioners’ staff gave them, and shrinking a buffer zone for protected bird habitat. Both were victories for developer Shea Properties and the city, but another wetland they disputed was left in place.

At last week’s meeting, commissioners repeatedly said they felt trapped between dueling experts without a good way to decide between them. Ultimately they supported some of their own staff’s results but jettisoned some key points in favor of what Shea’s experts argued before them. The result seemed inconsistent.

“It was pretty confusing to just about all of us in the room there,” said land preservation activist Mark Bixby. “I really need to wait and see what sort of map commission staff is going to draw based on their understanding of what happened.”

Shea spokesman Laer Pearce said his company thinks they have about 24 acres of the 50-acre parcel to build on — 10 or so less than the city approved for building in 2002, but just under seven more than commission staff would have given them. But the details remain a bit murky, and he’s not sure yet whether that’s enough land to be viable for a project.

Still, he calls last week a victory, on balance.

“We’re getting more into process stuff now,” he said. “They agreed there’s going to be development on the land. Now it’s about how we build it.”

There are many hurdles in front of the developer before it could break ground, and even Pearce said he expects a couple more years before any project could move forward. The city must approve changes to the plan brought on by the Coastal Commission, the commission must approve another, more specific permit, and other agencies must weigh in.

But the Land Trust will be fighting Shea every step of the way, Horgan said — lawsuit or no. She said residents were outraged by the decisions of what she called an increasingly pro-developer Coastal Commission, and they were ready to fight.

“We’re going to listen to our membership about this,” she said. “Whether it’s a city council meeting or a county meeting or anything else, whatever is necessary to monitor this, the land trust will do.”